Blinken meets Saudi leader in bid to ease Israeli conflicts

President Joe Biden’s top diplomat held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, a bid to garner regional support for a push toward peace.

Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader in Riyadh on Wednesday, having earlier traveled to Israel to discuss how to resolve the two conflicts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On departure from Tel Aviv, he said he urged Israel’s leader not to act in ways that exacerbate hostilities with Iran or its allied militant groups.

“We’ll always stand with Israel in its defense,” he told reporters as he prepared to board a plane to the Saudi capital. Referring to Iran’s missile attack on Israel at the start of the month he said, “It’s also very important that Israel responds in ways that do not create greater escalation and do not risk spreading the conflict.”

Overnight, Israel said it confirmed the killing three weeks ago of Hashem Safieddine, a cleric widely expected to become the leader of Hezbollah, the militant group Israel has been targeting with a major offensive in Lebanon.

His death was confirmed Wednesday by Hezbollah, whose previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut in September. Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon last month to end its military threat and force fighters away from the northern border.

Border visit

Israel carried out heavy airstrikes on the coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state-run NNA reported, after the military asked people in several neighborhoods to leave their homes. Hezbollah has fired well over 100 rockets and missiles at Israel over the last two days, the Israel Defense Forces said, including long-range ones that were shot down over Tel Aviv.

“We are winning. We are not limited in time and space,” an Israeli lieutenant colonel, who gave only his first name — Jordan — due to military secrecy regulations, told reporters during a tour of the Lebanese border.

“We will have a cease-fire when our 65,000 civilians who fled their homes in the north of Israel can return home in safety and security,” he said, as artillery fired every few minutes into Lebanon, where black smoke plumed from one site.

“I don’t think we’re there yet,” he added.

Blinken, in meetings on Tuesday with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and others, urged Israel not to lose sight of its long-term security goals, including achieving peace with more Arab states.

“Now is the time to turn those successes into a very strategic success,” Blinken said to reporters.

He said last week’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in particular, created a possibility to end the war in Gaza and bring home the dozens of Israeli hostages still held there.

“Israel has achieved most of its strategic objectives when it comes to Gaza, all with the idea of making sure Oct. 7 can never happen again,” Blinken said, referring to Hamas’s attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the conflict. “It’s managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity and destroy much of its arsenal. This has come at a cost — a great cost — to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage when its fighters raided southern Israeli communities and military bases from Gaza. Israel’s subsequent offensive on the Palestinian territory has killed more than 42,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, and seen much of the population struggle to access food and health care.

Blinken urged Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to get more aid into Gaza. The U.S. has said it may restrict military supplies to Israel if that doesn’t happen by next month.

The war has inflamed tensions in the region and led to widespread anger against Israel in Arab states and the rest of the world.

The U.S. and many other countries consider Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist groups.

Iran has twice carried out long-range missile attacks on Israel. The first salvo, in April, drew a muted Israeli response, but the Netanyahu government has pledged major retaliation this time.

On Oct. 1, Iran carried out its second such attack this year, firing about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. They were mostly intercepted and caused little damage, but a civilian was killed in the West Bank by falling debris from a projectile and millions of Israelis were forced into shelters.

The U.S. has backed Israel’s stance on retaliating against Iran, but urge it not to hit Iran’s nuclear or oil-export facilities, fearing that could cause a full-on regional war and push up energy prices.

Biden is probably especially eager to prevent that outcome before the U.S. elections on Nov. 5, when his vice president, Kamala Harris, faces off against former President Donald Trump.

Before Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S. was close to reaching an historic deal that would have seen Israel and Saudi Arabia normalize diplomatic ties, and Washington and Riyadh boost security and military relations.

The U.S. and Israel are still keen to reach such an agreement, which they believe is crucial to strengthening Israel’s security and weakening Iran. Saudi Arabia’s government is still in favor of a deal, yet Prince Mohammed has said Israel’s government first needs to take concrete steps toward accepting an independent Palestinian state.

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(With assistance from Dana Khraiche.)

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